


vacuum

by MoonlightShines (Thatkillervibe)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, CC Jitters, F/M, Near Death Experiences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:41:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22934224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatkillervibe/pseuds/MoonlightShines
Summary: Caitlin frowned and discreetly pulled her phone out of her purse. Ramsey continued on, his tone inflecting into a whisper as he took out an iPad. Caitlin’s thumb hovered over the alert app, waiting. She moved some hair out of her face and plastered a strained smile.6x01 rewrite.
Relationships: Barry Allen & Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow & Ramsey Rosso, Cisco Ramon/Caitlin Snow
Comments: 7
Kudos: 8





	vacuum

**Author's Note:**

> 6x01 reimagined.

“She should’ve gone down fighting.” 

Caitlin frowned and discreetly pulled her phone out of her purse. Ramsey continued on, his tone inflecting into a whisper as he took out an iPad. Caitlin’s thumb hovered over the alert app, waiting. She moved some hair out of her face and plastered on a strained smile. 

“My god, this is a potential cure...But what’s the bonding agent strengthening the body’s defence?”

Ramsey’s eyes lit up. “Dark matter.” 

Caitlin pressed the button. 

~.~ 

  
  


When Caitlin signalled danger, Cisco always answered. He may not have been able to breach instantaneously anymore, but it didn’t take much longer for Cisco to reach out and grab an extrapolator from off his workshop’s desk and yell down the hall that something was amiss. 

“What?!” shouted Barry from the Cortex, but Cisco had already stepped out onto the street from the GPS locator. Jitters. 

He brushed past an older man who grumbled at him, breathing out a sigh of relief to see her sitting alone at her usual table, seemingly okay. 

He quickened his pace, putting his hand on her arm. “Hey,” he panted, willing his heart to calm down. She wasn’t in danger. She was fine. Caitlin was right here and fine. “You rang?” 

Caitlin smiled shakily at him. “Am I ever glad to see you.” 

Cisco tilted his head and chuckled pleased, albeit confused. “You sent an SOS.” 

She nodded and got up to order drinks. He followed. “Remember Ramsey? I’ve told you about him.” 

“Yeah,” he said. “The one whose mother passed away. You went to her funeral.” 

“He was just here talking to me.”

  
  
“How’s that an emergency?” It wasn’t judgmental. Curious, though. 

  
  


“I got rattled.” 

“Why?” 

Caitlin lowered her voice. “He was rambling about using Star Lab’s dark matter for an HLH cancer cure.” She bit her lip. “The way he talked to me, what he was saying...Cisco, it wasn’t right.” 

He bristled, looking out the window. As if he’d still be hovering around. “Did he threaten you?” 

“No,” Caitlin said. “I don’t think he did. But he had called me by my nickname too much for my liking. It began to crawl underneath my skin. Like I owed him a favour.” 

“Cait? He called you Cait?” 

“Yes.” 

“Even I never call you that.” Barry and Iris use it sometimes, to which Caitlin never said she'd minded, but in Cisco's mind, that sacred nickname right only belonged to her lover. It was fine. Cisco had plenty of creative alternatives. 

“You could if you want to.” 

She continued talking, but Cisco stopped listening. 

He felt uneasy. Not unlike the onset of an incoming vibe, although that would be impossible. Some newspapers were blowing down the sidewalk as if the wind was picking up. While the Fall weather was getting cooler, it had been a rather breezeless day. He frowned, staring at the branch that had just snapped off the tree in the park across the street. 

“--Cisco?” 

The windows and doors blew in. Glass shards spraying as customers screamed. Cisco grabbed Caitlin’s hand as she met his eyes, terrified. A dark vacuum enveloped the entrance as mugs and napkins and jackets and wallets went flying, consumed by it. 

A black hole. 

Cisco strained for the sturdiest thing to cling to as the current blew Caitlin forward. He screamed after her, his heart dropping as she flew with everything being swallowed whole. Caitlin caught onto the edge of the counter, and he could hear her begging Frost for help. She was losing her grip, and so was Cisco. He fought against the wind as he risked freeing a hand to reach into his pocket for the extrapolator. 

Caitlin was screaming his name. 

  
“I’m coming!” he promised, fighting his panic. He managed to leverage himself closer to her and she held out, gripping his wrist. 

Her eyes were blown back wide, her hair flapping wildly in the storm, struck with fear. There was no time to wonder what had happened to Frost, or what this was and why. Cisco could only hold onto her tightly, crushing her fingers as he gritted his teeth. He couldn’t see with his black hair covering over his eyes. He tried explaining to her his plan with the extrapolator, pushing it into her palm. 

Caitlin let go of him to take hold of the device, her knuckles of her other hand white as she clutched her only support. Cisco urged her to get them out quickly as she flicked it, the blue familiar vortex struggling to open.

And then she slipped. 

The extrapolator got sucked in and another scream tore out from his throat as she went flying. 

_“Caitlin!”_

He lurched after her and caught her hand. She was screaming, crying, frightened out of her mind as all her eyes did was flash brown to white then brown again. “Hold on. _I’ve got you._ I”m not letting go, okay? _You just have to hold on! Get Frost.”_   
  


_“I can’t!”_ She really couldn’t. Her entire body perpendicular to the vacuum as it became clear this was how they were both going to die.

He couldn’t even see her face anymore, her hair a wild mess and his own, blinding him. His heart pounded in his ears. Cisco couldn’t see Caitlin anymore, but he could still hear her. He couldn’t see her, but he could still feel her as she slipped from his fingers. 

The loss of her touch made him let go completely. It was then, he realized she was gone. 

Without anything to hold onto, Cisco got knocked to the floor, his body sliding towards the black hole as he struggled. His elbows scraped against the ground, and his skin burned at the friction. It was nothing compared to the burning behind his eyes. 

Cisco remembered the astrophysics elective he’d taken at school. How he thought the theory behind black holes was fascinating: A pit of void nothingness. He had asked Kara, once. If she’d known anything else about them. Her eyes glossed over, far away. Cisco never asked again. 

He closed his eyes as his mind went numb over the roar. 

Energy crackled in his ear, the entire building brightening in red lightning as Barry swept people into his arms to safety. He swooped up Cisco, sprinting him blocks away. He dropped him onto his feet, yanking off his cowl as he yelled at him in a rushed frenzy.

_“Where’s Caitlin?”_

Cisco’s knees buckled.


End file.
